The invention relates to a fishing reel of a type that a spool, on which a fishing line is to be wound, is rotatably supported between the two side plates of a reel main body and, in particular, to a fishing reel suitable for lure fishing.
Conventionally, as one of fishing methods, there is known lure fishing in which an artificial bait referred to as a lure is given actions to thereby catch fish; and, in the lure fishing, there is used a fishing reel having such a structure as shown in Japanese Patent No. 3009074 and Japanese Patent No. 3025172. In the lure fishing, normally, in the light of the fact that fish will not show an interest so much in an object moving steadily with a constant speed, the lure is given various actions; for example, it is stopped and moved by operating a rod or a reel.
As an example of operations to be executed in this case, there is know an operation in which a rod is pulled up after casting to give the lure some actions and the fishing line is taken up onto the spool by an amount corresponding to the pulled-up amount of the rod by operating and rotating a handle while holding down the rod in such a manner that the fishing line can be prevented from loosening. And, a fisherman repeats this series of lure actions (inducing operations for reeling up the fishing line) a required number of times according to the conditions of fishing spots and waits for a bite.
By the way, in carrying out the lure fishing using the above-structured fishing reel, the fisherman must carry out the lure action operations while using properly the rod operation by the fisherman's hand gripping and holding the reel and the reeling operation by the opposite hand. In other words, in a state where the arm for operating the rod after performing the casting operation is stretched full, or in a state where the handle faces downward (due to the relation thereof, the handle held together with the rod by the hand is easy to face downward), the other hand is situated at an unnatural position, which makes it hard to perform an easy and delicate handle rotation operation, that is, an easy and delicate reeling operation.
Further, when the fisherman holds an obstacle in the fishing spot or something with the handle-side hand, or when the fisherman supports the fishing rod with one hand and holds a landing net for taking fish therein with the other hand, both hands are used, which disables the fisherman to carry out the reeling operation with the handle-side hand.